Many different types of voice-enabled applications are being developed using the VoiceXML standard and associated Internet technologies. VoiceXML is a markup language for creating voice user interfaces. It uses speech recognition and/or touchtone (e.g., DTMF keypad) for input, and pre-recorded audio and text-to-speech synthesis (TTS) for output. Callers interact with VoiceXML applications via a VoiceXML “interpreter” (also known as a “browser”) running on a telephony server in an analogous way to Web surfers interacting with HTML applications via graphical browsers on their PCs.
VoiceXML based applications are growing in popularity and effectiveness. This growth is reflected in the many recently deployed Voice XML based business and service applications. For example, many phone companies implement toll-free directory assistance services that handle over 200,000,000 calls per year. Such services often let customers speak a name or phone number to make a phone call and use voice commands to, for example, access information services such as stock quotes and sports. Other XML based services provide customers a voice-enabled portal that handles thousands of calls each day and are capable of retrieving the customer's records, running a line test, checking and confirming appointment times, updating customer contact information, and the like. Thousands of companies in a wide array of industries offer speech applications that meet the varied needs of their customers and employees.
In the prior art, run-time control over voice application behavior is very problematic. Run-time control over voice application behavior is needed in order to adapt an application to rapidly manage operational contingencies or take advantage of a business opportunity (e.g. change main greeting prompts, modify transfer destinations, modify call tiering logic, etc.). In the prior art this typically requires a full development cycle. Such development cycles include time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks such as recoding software, software quality assurance and testing, and application software re-deployment requiring service downtime. Further, these changes must be made by technical personnel who are often not accountable for caller experience making this process error-prone. Several iterations of changes before acceptance are not uncommon. Thus, what is required is an efficient voice application updating mechanism that enables enterprises to easily and rapidly adapt their critical phone self-service applications to changing business and operational conditions at run-time with minimum errors and zero downtime